I can only imagine how difficult creating faces must be for an artist, because the slightest distortion could make the character unrecognizable. Instead of struggling with the art of perfectly replicating facial proportion by hand, however, Bert Simons sculpts people digitally to increase accuracy. The Dutch artist creates 3D papers sculptures using a “dot per dot” method.

“These are papercraft sculptures made in the same way as the familiar papercraft houses and animals,” the artist says on his website.

The first step is digitization, which is what you see in the images with the little marks dotted over the head in some of the images below. Simons then uses Bender, a 3D program that allows him to make planes, then creates texture maps that he cuts and glues together to create the 3D portraits.

“I hope to speed up the next portrait by using my laser scan setup which I am experimenating with right now.”

bbartz

Bianca Bartz is a freelance writer and editor based on Vancouver Island. She's a lover of written words, addicted to the interwebs and an aspiring photographer. She is fluent in English and German and considers herself a modern nomad, traveling whenever possible and using the Internet to stay connected and work virtually.